We made it! Yeah!

The four of us — me, Hallie, Abbie and Daisy (our adorable and portable Bichon Frisee) left upstate New York on Monday, destined for 18 hours of door-to-door travel. We had a not-so-special free (beautiful!) frequent flyer trip on KLM. I was not impressed at all by the service, the plane, the food or anything for that matter, but then again, I am a loyal Air France traveler. Anyway, I don’t really want to recount our boring trip, but suffice it to say, we’re glad to be here and to recover for a while before coming home.

I probably should have titled this entry, “Ode to Chris” as it is thanks to his suggestion, that I am writing this. So, here is where I begin my Blog de Balmont — the story of what I am when I leave my complicated life in the Hudson Valley and refind my little French life. I go away for a reason — to change my reality a bit, and this almost-summer, I really have alot to put behind me. I won’t go into details, but the last few weeks have been a bit taxing and because I am anything but basic, my life in the states has somewhat worn me out.

I am going to assume that anybody who is willing to read this will put up with my french/english confusion. At this point, I am more in my English head than my French one, but as the weeks go by, this will surely change. So, break out your french dictionary.

Day One: I unpacked (yawn), took a nap (big yawn) and met with Eric, the amazing carpenter/plombier, electrician, homme qui peut tout faire, about things in the house here. There are leaks, and broken terracotta roof tiles, missing septics, and a list of little things that need to be addressed this summer, not to mention the kitchen which is in a state of disarray/renovation, though improved.

Eric had a Ricard avec beaucoup d’eau and we went over all the intimidating things that I have to deal with this summer. No, no, it’ll be fine. I am just a bit tired and not yet up for projects, having just left my kitchen in the states under construction. Bye to the 30 year old brown GE double oven that hasn’t really worked for two years, hello new cooking possilbilities. No more toaster oven for me. I’m a real Betty Crocker now.

Ok, back to France. So, it is so bloody hot here I can barely stand it. Eric departs dans la chaleur du soir, with a cigarette en bouche, on his 30 year old moto (is everything 30 years old, but me?) A true guy. My next project is to pick out kitchen tiles tomorrow in Lyon, centre ville.

We are invited to Zizou et Joseph’s for dinner. They have an awesome piscine and the girls have been dieing to take the plunge. They swam with great abandon in the middle of the most beautiful countryside that I have ever seen. This area is incredible. So not fancy, but so profoundly beautiful and so safe-seeming to me. A big plus. I have traveled a bit in France and I must say, les monts du lyonnais is really “all that.”

A bientot (can’t figure out how to do that hat accent, so I am going to be accent lazy, ok?)